Vye

Caspian is busy working on testing and validation of our online store with our merchant partners right now, so he asked me to write this week’s CoE Update! Be afraid!

The team has been working diligently to turn ideas into reality. As we transition into Production, we will begin to have a lot more in-engine things to show you. That's not to say we won't have awesome concept art, but it's time to focus on building now. It won't always be a totally new category —for example, each different armor piece we make— since that is more an attribute of the prototyping and pre-production phases.

But without further ado, here are a few things I'm excited to share with you!

Armor and Clothing

Armor and clothing are intended to be layers on your avatar, just like how you would wear clothing and armor in real-life! Walking around or fighting with metal-on-skin is an experience in chaffing I wouldn't recommend. Here is an example of not only the layering of clothing and armor, but some of the textures and insanely fashionable hose you could craft in-game.

Figure 1 - Different clothing configurations

What I want to bring your attention to more than anything else is again the fact that equipment is layered, allowing you to create a very put-together outfit. Additionally, while the pants look a little silly, they do go to show you how much customization is possible with the crafting system.

...And Now Time for The Weather Report

In Elyria, creatures and people aren't your only adversary. The weather will be something that you will want to be mindful of as well. This video shows some weather effects that we are testing out. What begins as a nice day romping in a field turns worrisome for the unprepared traveler. A wise adventurer would seek shelter from such a storm, lest they become ill or, much worse, get struck by lightning!

Figure 2 - Environment effects

And before you ask, yes, you can determine the distance between you and a lightning strike by counting, though the system isn’t implemented just yet. And with Elyria’s scale being different than ours, it’ll likely be around one second per 100 meters, rather than one second per 340 m/s.

Even still, if the sound of thunder and the sight of lightning doesn’t make you want to run for cover, we’re not doing it right. Keep in mind, this video is just a work-in-progress. As it gets further along we’ll show you periodic updates.

It's So Fluffy!

Say hello again to this little guy... the Flower-Cup Porcupine. We're making progress with our hair and fur shaders and what better way to celebrate than to give him the fuzz he deserves. Caution is recommended when attempting to cuddle one since those quills aren't just for decoration!

Figure 3 - The in-game Flower-cup Porcupine

Make note, that first image is the in-game screenshot of the porcupine. And, in case you’re curious how close we are to our original concept, here it is again for reference. Nailed it.

Figure 4 - The Flower-cup Porcupine concept Art

November Store Update

As mentioned previously, the product tiers and add-on packages will be changing in November. For one, the prices will be increasing, and second, the packages are changing. Let me talk more about that second part.

The experience you have in Chronicles of Elyria will be relatively different depending on the role you are playing and the store is going to reflect that. Whether you are an Adventurer, Gentry, Aristocrat, or Noble, we are stream-lining the store experience to better guide you through the product tiers and add-ons that will benefit your chosen role.

Your first step when entering the new store in November is choose the role you wish to play: Adventurer, Gentry, Aristocracy, or Nobility. Each Role will be further broken down into three categories with different price points: a basic tier, advanced tier, and ultimate package. The basic tier gets you into the role and provides the basic equipment and resources befitting the average whatever-you-chose. The advanced tier would provide additional resources, and the ultimate tier would have even more (it's the ultimate tier, after all). Additional resources for an Adventurer might be a mount, for Gentry it could include a parcel of land or uncommon crafting materials, etc.

After selecting your role, you may also select add-on packages that further specializes exactly what you want to be when you start out. This is where you can get the tools to be a Blacksmith, the accouterments of a Knight, the traps of a Hunter, or the finery of a Viscount. Further a la carte items may be added in addition or instead, but we are preparing packages that will make it easy to play the role you wish.

Update on Layaway, etc.

Hey Folks, Caspian here. Vye did a great job with the update, didn’t she?! Not as verbose as me, but that’s not really a bad thing.

Really quickly, I wanted to provide an update on what’s happening with the layaway and store patch. ZRO and I worked on Saturday to get the layaway system completed, which we did, but when we went to do validation and testing discovered that once again, payment processing was disabled on the test servers of our merchant partners.

Figure 5 - The layaway indicator

As a result, we’re unable to complete end-to-end validation. This blocks us from doing any deployments as we don’t want to push something out without being able to go through a full transaction with the layaway system in place. To be clear, this has no impact on the production store. Just on the test store running in sandbox mode.

The good news is I’ve not been idle. I’ve been using the time to add further unit tests to ensure the integrity of the store, and also to begin work on re-introducing Influence Points to the store. With just a week left of the store being open with the current tier prices, I wanted to provide a way for those of you with IP earned from recruiting your friends, etc. to have access to those credits. Whether or not we get unblocked tomorrow or not, later this week we’ll post another update with store credit awarded for your earned IP. Remember, 50 IP = $5 USD. So each friend you’ve invited who purchases a pledge package will award you $5 in store credit in the online store. Use that to put toward Sparks of Life, upgrades, or even the 10% required to initiate a layaway tier!

That all being said, while the store opening a few days late at the beginning of October was no big deal, and doesn’t warrant extending the time the store is open with the current tier prices, this delay might. If we’re blocked from deploying tomorrow, we’ll extend the store prices another couple of days to make sure everyone has time to claim their layaway packages.

Pteroguin

Member

Rank 12

454 Posts

October 2016

Awesome update! You mention the roles being broken down by type of role we wish to play, will we also have access to an all item list? Vye mentioned al le carte, but will it be al le carte all items, not just role-type? :) I imagine so, but want to make sure that I don't need to spawn four different accounts and then follow up with causing some weird gifting mechanism to myself. Heh. As always thanks for your time!

eMadagio

Polite

Member

Rank 12

552 Posts

August 2016

Excellent writing style on the part of Vye. I look forward to seeing more of your work in the updates. Excellent work overall Soulbound, it's great to see just in this update how the production capability is rising going from pre- to full on production.

Sharayah

The rain video's awesome (if a bit quiet)! Love that lightning will be more than just a pretty picture.

The flower-cup porcupine looks almost spot-on to the concept art. Except that it looks like it wants to eat my soul.

I think it's the eyes that make it look a bit psychotic. The concept art makes me think the eyes are recessed into the skull a bit like most mammals, but the model has them bulging out excessively. Not sure if the sly look of the right-most concept critter would even be possible with those bulging eyes. It certainly doesn't help that they've got a glassy cross-eyed gaze. The nose also looks odd, too large and blunt for most rodents, too small and sharp for normal porcupines.

Based on images of real porcupines, they probably need a lot more fluff around their faces. That would hide the bulging eyes and round out the nose, so they'd look just fine with no other changes. Alternatively, bringing in the eyes a little and making the snout pointier and shorter would make it match the concept art better.

Urbanmyth

Member

Rank 11

37 Posts

September 2016

The Q & A on Friday was great. Perfect way to just brainstorm ideas and have an instant response from us. And a nice set/backdrop too. I was expecting someone sitting in front of a computer with a whiteboard in the background but was pleasantly surprised by this.

Looking forward to the next Q&A!

Grant Count Urban of UrLore
[NA-W] Kingdom of Riftwood, The Duchy of Vandiir

markof

Member

Rank 11

1439 Posts

July 2015

Caspian : "That all being said, while the store opening a few days late at the beginning of October was no big deal, and doesn’t warrant extending the time the store is open with the current tier prices, this delay might. If we’re blocked from deploying tomorrow, we’ll extend the store prices another couple of days to make sure everyone has time to claim their layaway packages."

Nice, we also need the EP charts, i was expecting them with that update, next weekend it will be too late :(

Odsbodikins

Member

Rank 10

1167 Posts

February 2016

When I look closely at the concept of the flower cup porcupines, the left one looks male, and the right look more feminine.

Sharayah pointed out the eyes, and I draw my attention to them too, the shape or the eyes is my reference for m/f. The screen little guy looks like the left concept, and a more almond shape to the eyes would be good for the female then, based on the concept art.

Vanthie

Member

Rank 7

110 Posts

May 2016

Posted By Sharayah at 10:42 PM - Sun Oct 23 2016

I think it's the eyes that make it look a bit psychotic. The concept art makes me think the eyes are recessed into the skull a bit like most mammals, but the model has them bulging out excessively. Not sure if the sly look of the right-most concept critter would even be possible with those bulging eyes. It certainly doesn't help that they've got a glassy cross-eyed gaze.

Lol, I think it looks strange because its eyes are pointing in completely different directions. Most mammals look straight in front of them, not out to the side like fish do.

Aresoren

Member

Rank 10

20 Posts

May 2016

Posted By Vanthie at 01:43 AM - Mon Oct 24 2016

Posted By Sharayah at 10:42 PM - Sun Oct 23 2016

I think it's the eyes that make it look a bit psychotic. The concept art makes me think the eyes are recessed into the skull a bit like most mammals, but the model has them bulging out excessively. Not sure if the sly look of the right-most concept critter would even be possible with those bulging eyes. It certainly doesn't help that they've got a glassy cross-eyed gaze.

Lol, I think it looks strange because its eyes are pointing in completely different directions. Most mammals look straight in front of them, not out to the side like fish do.

To add to that, the first thing I noticed were the eyes too. They almost looked too big in my opinion, but that just might be because of the bulge. I coulnt quite pinpoint it but Im glad that other people noticed the eyes as well and it wasnt just me XD It reminded me of Scrat from Ice Age lol

Other than that, it is freaking adorable.

Great update! I am really excited for this to hit its production stage. Hurrah for in-engine assets.

Duyo

Member

Rank 7

234 Posts

June 2016

"So each friend you’ve invited who purchases a pledge package will award you $5 in store credit in the online store."

But you guys have disabled adding a friend code and it doesnt work! Ive sent you support email tickets, messaged on facebook, made a forum post about this and no reply whatsoever. So if you are telling me that it SHOULD be working and no one is able to use that extra 50 ip before prices go up, that's kinda a problem.